State of Emergency: The Way We Were : Britain, 1970-1974In the early 1970s, Britain seemed to be tottering on the brink of the abyss. Under Edward Heath, the optimism of the Sixties had become a distant memory. Now the headlines were dominated by strikes and blackouts, unemployment and inflation. As the world looked on in horrified fascination, Britain seemed to be tearing itself apart. And yet, amid the gloom, glittered a creativity and cultural dynamism that would influence our lives long after the nightmarish Seventies had been forgotten. In this brilliant new history, Dominic Sandbrook recreates the gaudy, schizophrenic atmosphere of the early Seventies: the world of Enoch Powell and Tony Benn, David Bowie and Brian Clough, Germaine Greer and Mary Whitehouse. An age when the unions were on the march and the socialist revolution seemed at hand, but also when feminism, permissiveness, pornography and environmentalism were transforming the lives of millions. It was an age of miners' strikes, tower blocks and IRA atrocities, but it also gave us celebrity footballers and high-street curry houses, organic foods and package holidays, gay rights and glam rock. For those who remember the days when you could buy a new colour television but power cuts stopped you from watching it, this book could hardly be more vivid. It is the perfect guide to a luridly colourful Seventies landscape that shaped our present from the financial boardroom to the suburban bedroom |
Contents
A State of Emergency | 3 |
A Better Tomorrow | 15 |
Heathco | 55 |
Copyright | |
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Belfast bomb Britain in Agony British Cabinet called campaign Campbell cent centre City Conservative Crisis culture Daily David decade December Diaries Don Revie Donoughue Douglas Hurd Downing Street early economic Edward Heath election England Enoch Powell European Fawlty Towers February feminist film football going Harold Wilson Heath Government hooliganism Hurd immigrants Industrial Relations inflation James Lees-Milne January Jim Prior John July June Labour later leader London March Maudling Metro-land middle-class million miners never Northern Ireland November Number October party Peter political politicians popular Prime Minister Protestant radical Reginald Maudling reported Revie Scargill seemed September sexual social society story strike Sunday Taylor teenagers television Thatcher thought three-day week told Tony Benn Tory trade unions unemployment unionists violence vote wanted week Whitelaw Willie Whitelaw women workers working-class wrote young